Message from our Director

Message from our Director

Dear Friends,

Laurel House first opened its doors in 1980 for the purpose of providing hotline and emergency shelter for victims of domestic violence. Now, more than three decades later, Laurel House has grown into a comprehensive domestic violence agency, providing supportive and preventative services throughout Montgomery County.

Although our programs and services have expanded and changed over the years, Laurel House’s commitment to the vision of “ending domestic violence in each life, home and community” remains as steadfast as ever.

While there is no “typical” day or week at Laurel House, here are some of the kinds of things that happen regularly:

A young mother calls the hotline and a trained advocate listens attentively and helps make arrangements for the mom and her children to get to safety;

Our Medical Advocate meets with a victim at a local hospital and provides her with options counseling;

Counselors at the shelter help a resident relocate to another city so that she can begin her life again and be safely housed near extended family members;

Our Legal Advocate accompanies a young man to the courthouse to obtain a Protection from Abuse Order;

A Police Officer calls to ask the on-call Domestic Abuse Response Team (DART) volunteer to help with safety planning for a victim of domestic violence;

Our Community Educator visits a local high school and conducts an interactive presentation on Teen Dating Abuse and Healthy Relationships;

One of our licensed therapists meets with a woman who is concerned because her granddaughter is in an abusive marriage and the woman wants to know how she can help her;

One of our thrift shop volunteers takes in a bag of donations from a woman who also asks for a brochure about our services to give to a co-worker who has confided that her boyfriend is becoming increasingly controlling and jealous.

These are just a few examples of the kinds of services Laurel House provides on a regular basis. Each day, our volunteers, staff, and board members are working together to address the needs of the people and communities in our region that are impacted by domestic violence. Thank you for your interest in our work, and for your support of our efforts.

Thank you for being a part of Laurel House and for the vital role you play in our work. Your support truly makes a difference!

Best Wishes,
Beth Sturman

Special Announcement:

As so many of our Laurel House friends and family know, we have been searching for several years for a new location to accommodate an expanding office and shelter space for our clients and staff. While we are not giving up on the goal of having a single campus for all Laurel House services and programs, we have come across a very viable and appealing solution that would allow us to expand our outreach and administrative office space now.

Effective Dec. 1, 2017, we will relocate Laurel House’s administrative and outreach offices to 180 W. Germantown Pike in East Norriton, Montgomery County. The move will take us from a 100+ year-old, outdated building to 5,000 square feet of newly renovated space that is on one floor in a fully secured building, making it safe and more accessible for our clients and our staff. The additional space also allows for additional counseling offices which means we can see more clients simultaneously than is possible in our current location.

This decision was made very deliberately, as we carefully evaluated our options. The ability to see more clients in updated, accessible space was the deciding factor in this case, particularly given the length of time we have been searching for an all-inclusive location. We are also continuing our search for a separate, new shelter location.

We are fortunate to be able to secure this office space via a renewable lease, which allows us the flexibility to continue our process of looking for our desired single-campus location for the future. In fact, we continue to work actively with county officials, as well as meet and engage with community leaders to assist us in this effort. As always, we are most appreciative of our Capital Campaign donors who have committed funds in support of a combined move for our shelter, outreach and administrative offices. Those funds are secure and will be utilized for a site that will include shelter, as well as office space.

In the meantime, we will share our new space in East Norriton with Mission Kids, Montgomery County’s Child Advocacy Center and a long-time collaborator with Laurel House.

We look forward to our expanded capacity in this new location and will keep you apprised of our progress on a new shelter location as well.